Colton Haab, a survivor of the Florida school shooting, claims that CNN didn’t allow him to ask his questions at a townhall and instead gave him scripted questions. Due to this, Haab declined to participate.

CNN held a townhall last night, moderated by Jake Tapper, with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch. The students and parents had an opportunity to ask them questions, along with Democrat Senator Bill Nelson and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, whose office missed numerous warning signs from shooter Nikolas Cruz.

Haab had a great idea about safety at schools, but CNN apparently said no and gave him a different question. From Local 10:

“CNN had originally asked me to write a speech and questions, and it ended up being all scripted,” junior Colton Haab said Wednesday night.

Haab wrote questions about school safety and suggested using veterans as security guards, but he claims CNN wanted him to ask scripted questions instead.

So, Haab said, he declined to participate.

“I don’t think that it’s going to get anything accomplished,” Haab said. “It’s not going to ask the true questions that all the parents and teachers and students have.”

Haab, a JROTC member, told CNN that once he heard a shooter was on campus, “he ushered 60 to 70 people to shelter in an open Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps” and used Kevlar sheets to protect them:

“We took those sheets, and we put them in front of everybody so they weren’t seen, because they were behind a solid object and the Kevlar would slow the bullet down,” Haab told CNN on Thursday.

“I didn’t think it was going to stop it, but it would definitely slow it down to make it from a catastrophic to a lifesaving thing.”

“According to a CNN insider Haab wanted to give an extensive speech and not just ask a question, something the network said the forum was not designed for” – are you joking, the entire event was a series of people giving extensive speeches https://t.co/2fqmTeU7ds

“We always get outspent by the N.R.A. because there just isn’tany money to be made by passing gun controls,” said Jake Tapper, a spokesman for Handgun Control Inc., the nation’s leading advocate of tougher firearms laws.

There are pictures and video of one of the students reading from a thin strip of paper.
I don’t think anyone takes notes on thin strips of paper, especially not when it is ONE question that you came up with by yourself.
The thin strip of paper looks exactly as if the questions were printed on a sheet of paper, cut out and then passed to each individual. CNN is a disgrace, and also the people who lent themselves to participate in this charade.
Colton Haab deserves praise for demonstrating honesty and integrity.

Here’s what I am saying: Minoff had a valuable perspective to offer CNN’s town hall. He would have been a good person to seek out. If CNN didn’t want to invite on Scalise because a) he’s not a survivor of this shooting and b) he doesn’t represent these Florida students, I think those are fair points. But a student who suffered through this shooting but nevertheless rejects the pro-gun control arguments is a voice that should have been heard. I knew about Minoff yesterday morning, and mentioned him in this post. I wish CNN had known about him too, and had sought him out to offer his point of view.

Please note: I’m not complaining about Dana Loesch being invited on to represent the NRA position. Dana is their spokesperson, and she’s very articulate, and clips like this show that she can hold her own. But the impression I am getting from critics — which, again, I can’t confirm because I didn’t watch the program — is that the town hall was short on skeptics of gun control among students who survived the shooting. And yet, they exist — and shooting survivors carry that “moral authority” that spokespeople like Loesch or politicians like Rubio (but not Scalise!) lack.

I have a comment for you on Johnny Carson below. One of the quirks of this site is that if you are not logged in and hit reply, you can log in. It brings you back to the same article, but you need to hit reply again to reply to the specific comment.

CNN has an agenda. It has always had an agenda. It has proven that it will do anything to advance that agenda and has been caught doing so. So, one can watch CNN for the entertainment value, much like a sit-com. But, it is a waste of time to view it for any informative content.

And, this town hall was one big anti-gun love fest, as are virtually all media productions on this subject. It was full of feeellliinnggs and short on facts.

The gun control debate is nothing more than mental masturbation. And no agreement will ever be obtained. On the pro-gun side you have facts, facts and more facts. On the anti-gun side all you have is feelings. The anti-gun factions will never admit to the validity of the facts, because their anti-gun religion will not allow it. We have been having the same debate for the last 50 years. The pro-gun side’s facts have been vindicated over and over and over again. But, we are still having the same debate with the same tired old, largely dis-proven, anti-gun talking points. What rational people have to wake up and realize is that the anti-gun supporters are either delusional or determined to disarm ordinary law-abiding people? And, you can’t reason with either for obvious reasons. This is one of the reasons why ordinary, law-abiding people have legal access to deadly weapons. It is to protect themselves from the delusional anti-gun people who would enslave them.

Ted Turner founded it. Whatever agenda he had would have was clear. He was known as the ‘mouth of the south’.

There current agenda is ‘make money’.

I have a question for you: Is it more likely that Fox News or CNN would try to have a discussion covering a range of views? How about Limbaugh v. NPR?

Yes, I know that Limbaugh sometimes gives air time to a liberal. That liberal has been carefully screened for idiocy. On the rare occasion that Limbaugh starts being bested, he surreptitiously disconnect the caller and goes on talking as if the caller has run out of arguments and cannot refute Limbaugh. Oh course the caller cannot refute Limbaugh. He has been disconnected.

I suggest that you turn to Fox news on weeknights at 8 and 10. 50% or more of Carlson’s guests present the opposing view and Ingraham routinely has guests with opposing views on her show. What CNN does is have one person on their shows, including their “town halls”, who espouses an opposing view and then presents that person with multiple persons expressing the same point of view as CNN. They gang up on the lone conservative and generally call that person names and belittle them.

Did Local 10 contact CNN before publishing? Does local news do that anymore, or just broadcast reality TV-like, one-sided stories? I ask because, it’s important to talk to the person or organization being accused to avoid being led into the ditch, even by someone who firmly believes they are telling the truth.

Worth pointing out that he only said the show was scripted, not that they gave him a scripted question. If they gave him a scripted question, he would’ve told us what the question was. The charges of the showing being scripted seem to simply be his opinion.

On the Hannity show that night, I heard Hannity begin a sentence with “I hate to make this political, but ………….”. I can’t quote beyond that because what followed was ridiculous and I simply forgot it. Your comment about not being political vomited it back up.

If you think I am lying or made it up, check the transcript.

The running joke in liberal circles is that immediately after an atrocity, politicians and gun apologists rapidly pop up to say it is too early to discuss remedies. Within a few days, it is too late.

Obviously, no statement from CNN carries any weight. A reputation for “fake news” implies a willingness to issue fake statements. But that by itself doesn’t mean CNN’s claim is actually false. We need more data. So … what was the question CNN wanted Mr Haab to ask?

CNN: “We have a very good question that you can ask.”
Haab: “Thank you, but I have my own question that I want to ask.”
CNN: “But our question is very smart. It will make you look smart in national TV. It is better.”
Haab: “I am already smart, and I do want to ask my own questions.”
CNN: “We are afraid that’s not going to be possible. Everybody else is doing it our way.”
Haab: “I am not everybody else. I will ask my own questions or I will not be a part of it.”

See?
Scripted.
Questions handed out.
Mr. Haab will not be able to tell us what the question was.

I am not saying that’s how it played out, just that it’s entirely possible that Mr. Haab was offered a scripted question and he refused to even see it.

On the other hand we have another student reading from a cut out strip of paper.

I particularly agree with you’re second point. IMO if you can’t pass a background check to buy a gun ( not a felon, mentally ill, drug addict or wife beater) I don’t want you having a say in anything that affects my life.

That Johnny Carson did jokes at the expense of gun aficionados is hardly evidence of a ‘Collective’. Carson was notorious for his independence. He also tended to stay far away from anything political because he didn’t wish to diminish his audience. He felt it was bad manners since he went into people’s homes. If he paid attention to any groups, it was his sponsors. They, like him, wanted the largest possible market.

Perhaps, he gained his opinion of ‘gun nuts’ from his formative years in the mid-west? I did not watch him often since I found him bland. But I can picture him doing a bit on a ‘gun nut’ wearing one of those hats with ear flaps. You have to admit that the look is awfully square.

I have met a wide variety of people (claims on this site to the contrary). I am even friendly with a neighbor who is an absolutist on ‘right to life’ and an avowed racist. We agreed to stay away from those topics. My point? I have met people who self-identify as many things, but I have never met anyone who claimed to be part of the Collective.

If Carson was a member, he certainly didn’t know it. That people who have gained fame and fortune express views that you see as part of a collective is your ideology or paranoia. I might have felt the same way about John Wayne and Bob Hope at the height to the Vietnam War. In fact, those people I knew thought that the ‘Collective’ supported the Vietnam War until Walter Cronkite went there and came to the conclusion we were being lied to. Perhaps this Collective is just consensus. That is not to say that consensus is right. Don’t pick horse in a race based on consensus.

As for your lament about how the debate field isn’t level, I offer you no sympathy. Clearly, you are overly sensitive to any slight of your point of view. But you are more likely to get objectivity in the NYTimes than on Fox News.

Recently the NYT did a long form, multi-part expose on the corruption and barbarity of the NY prison system. In one egregious example, a group of guards wanted to retaliate for against a prisoner who mouthed off. They choose the wrong prisoner and savagely beat him to death. Because of union rules, the only punishment inflicted on the guards was that the most senior guard was forced to retire.

Cuomo has been Governor for 8 years and has done nothing to reform the system. Cuomo wants to be president. He doesn’t want the CO union as an enemy. The Times may even endorse him. But this story doesn’t help him.

Imagine Fox News doing any story that doesn’t help Trump – Hannity is an ex-officio member of the administration.

As I write this, the notoriously liberal NPR just broadcast Wayne LaPierre’s statement without comment or rebuttal. I will bet you that if they do a long-form story they will diligently try to cover a range of views.

I have to correct one thing that you said here, snake. While still in Vietnam, just hours after the end of the Tet Offensive, Cronkite stated that the Tet Offensive was a resounding disaster for the Viet Cong and the NVA. This was supported by General Giap years later, when he said that following the Tet Offensive, the North was ready to sue for peace. Cronkite returned to New York, where he did a total 180 and claimed that the Tet Offensive was victory for the Viet Cong and the NVA and a disaster for the South and the US. Cronkite admitted years later that his second broadcast, from New York, was inaccurate. So, why did Cronkite choose to ignore the evidence, which he had seen for himself and attested to in Vietnam, in favor of an anti-War spin?

Go ahead and agree to their “scripted questions”. When it’s your turn just say “They gave me this scripted question to ask but I’ve got my own. Then proceed to ask your question. It most likely won’t get aired but you’ve had your say so.

Better yet, don’t even mention the scripted question. Start with the statement you wrote, mention the scripted question and ask your question instead. If it is being aired live by the time they realize what he is doing they would be exposed to everyone if they didn’t continue airing.

Police officers responding to last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida reportedly thought they were tracking Nikolas Cruz live on surveillance video — but then realized the footage was delayed by nearly 30 minutes, tossing roadblocks into the frantic efforts to capture the 19-year-old shooting suspect.

The security cameras in Broward School District had a 20-minute delay, which left responding officers in the dark when attempting to look for Cruz in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 13, the Sun Sentinel reported. Cruz was captured in Coral Springs, located about a mile away, more than an hour after the start of the shooting.”[Video images were] delayed 20 minutes and nobody told us that,” Coral Springs Police Chief Tony Pustizzi told the Sun Sentinel.

…Not everyone has, or should be expected to have, the guts to take on a maniac with an AR-15.”

We’re not talking everyone. We’re talking about the Broward County Deputy Sheriff assigned to the school. It’s why I did a complete 180 when it came to giving full military honors to JROTC Cadet Peter Wang at his funeral.

All the adults dropped the ball. It was up to the teenagers to solve the problems their elders created. It’s why I, as a former Naval officer, will not condemn those kids who won’t get off this old curmudgeon’s lawn. Who the f*** ever showed them the right way? Show them the right way and they’ll go that way, most of them.

I learned all my recruit training techniques from training gun dogs. Setters and retrievers. Which is not the insult anyone may try to make it out to be as it’s all based on respect and consistency.

But back to the point, who else besides Peter Wang and his fellow cadets deserve this nation’s gratitude? What the hell, reach into the bag of tricks and give all you can to those teenagers who showed more balls and smarts than their elders.

Juliet Lapidos’ tweet encompasses pretty much all that’s wrong in modern day America. Contrary to what she seems to think, you’re at no disadvantage with a pistol when a rifle shooter gives up the long range advantage by entering a building. It reminds me of one of my beefs with the movie “300,” about the Spartans fighting the Persians. Starting with one of the first scenes. The Persian emissary shows up at Sparta to demand Leonidas’ submission. And as they’re walking you see in the background Leonidas’ and the Persian emissary’s personal guards. And the Persians are archers, within arm’s reach of the Spartans and their Falcatas or short swords.

Guess who wins, now that the Persians have given up their only advantage?

An AR is not a magic shield. It won’t prevent the target/human being toting it from getting shot. It’s like high capacity magazines. The fact is if it’s an AR that only adds to resale value of the weapon.

I realize this sounds like big talk but I would have gone into that school and done what I could had I been assigned to that school.